


The Yellow Skirt

by robin_writes



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Emily's First Day, F/M, Grey world before you meet your soulmate, Married!Hotch, Soulmates, colour
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-10
Updated: 2018-04-10
Packaged: 2019-04-21 07:58:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14280489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robin_writes/pseuds/robin_writes
Summary: All her life, Emily had seen the world in greyscale. Apart from on one day. When she was seventeen, Emily experienced something. She had a burst of colours for a single day. And now the colours were back after meeting her new, very much married, boss Aaron Hotchner.





	The Yellow Skirt

All her life, Emily had seen the world in greyscale. Apart from on one day. When she was seventeen, Emily experienced something. She had a burst of colours for a single day. Felt more than human just for a day. And the next morning she woke, the greyness hit her and shocked her face into a frown. How could it be over so quickly? A day wasn’t enough. She hadn’t even met her soulmate before the colours slipped away. Intellectually she knew that everyone starts life out seeing grey, waiting until that one moment when the grey is lifted to reveal colours. Usually people who find their soulmates are enthralled by the gift of seeing the colours, but sometimes, like with Emily, being soulmates doesn’t always work out. Sometimes the colours fade; the universe has other plans. And sometimes they would disappear altogether. That was what scared Emily most, that something so incredible could be taken away. It had already happened once.

Everyone can tell when someone has met their soulmates, you can see it in their faces; the wonder, the marvel, the excitement. Sometimes Emily would sit out on the fire escape of her apartment and watch the city. It had so much life in it. The cars that drove by making loud noises drawing her attention to them.

She was all set for her transfer within the Bureau. Straightening her pencil skirt, and brushing lint off of her blouse, Emily made herself look presentable. She was nervous, more nervous than she had been since her first interview with the Bureau. But she didn’t have much to be nervous about. Strauss told her she already had the job, it was her first day. Nothing she couldn’t handle.

Emily took a deep breath and then slipped into her heels. It didn’t take long to get to Quantico. It felt surreally familiar and unfamiliar. She used to work on the fourth floor, but now she’d be on the sixth. It was weird.

There were a group of people hanging around the bullpen on the sixth floor, talking calmly. It looked to Emily like they were at home. Maybe they were. Maybe she was intruding on a home. Some units in the FBI were so tight knit that new or temporary agents felt isolated and asked to be transferred. Agent Hotchner’s team was the best and she really hoped that she’d feel welcome enough to stay.

Emily followed the grey stairs up to the grey office and knocked on the grey door. She missed the colours. “Come in.” A deep, warm voice said, and Emily pushed open the door. She looked up at the man, Agent Hotchner, and colours filtered back in. She gasped and a similar noise came from the male agent.  
“Can you see the colours?” Emily asked, a naive innocent tone coming through. Hotchner breathed out.  
“I can now.” He didn’t seem as excited as her. Emily picked up on it and shut the door behind her, she slid down into the chair in front of Hotchner’s desk.  
“You’re not happy.”  
“I’m married.” Agent Hotchner explained.  
“Oh.” Emily’s smile dropped instantly from her face. She desperately wanted to get up and run. Hide away. But her body wouldn’t move. She was frozen on the chair.   
“I married my wife, Haley, a few years after high school. We’re soulmates.”  
“You don’t owe me an explanation. I understand. Sir.” Emily realised that maybe her soulmate wasn’t meant to be hers. Maybe he was just meant to exist as some fucked up cosmic karma for her misspent youth.  
“I first noticed the colours in tenth grade when we met, but then they faded when I was twenty-five. I have always been faithful to my wife.”  
“I understand.” Emily pondered it for a moment. “Oh God, I’m sorry. I should’ve introduced myself. Emily Prentiss.” Emily outstretched her hand and Agent Hotchner shook it.  
“Aaron Hotchner. But everyone calls me Hotch.” He said.  
“Hotch.” Emily said, testing it out. “It suits you.” The corner of Hotch’s mouth turned upwards. “I don’t want to sound too forward, but I’d like to hold on to the colours as long as I can. When I was younger I spent a day seeing colours but I woke up the next morning to a grey world. I had convinced myself that it was just a dream. I read a couple of articles afterwards about how you can try to preserve the colours by sustaining contact. It might be all crap, but I really don’t want the world to go back to grey.” She was desperate, she sounded like an addict needing a fix.  
“That makes sense. Did it say what kind of contact?” If she didn’t know better, she would say his question made him nervous.  
“Not specifically. I’m thinking… I’m hoping that we can be friends.”  
“I think I’d like that.” Hotch said. “But for now, you need to sign some forms to make your transfer official. And then I can show you to your desk and introduce you to the team.” Hotch opened the top drawer in his desk and pulled out a couple of papers. He slid them across the desk along with a pen and encouraged Emily to sign on the lines.

Once she did, Hotch led her out of his office. She looked down at herself, feeling a little self conscious. And she noticed what she was wearing. She was wearing a charcoal grey blouse and a bright yellow skirt with blue heels. Emily snorted before bursting out with laughter. At first Hotch recoiled but then noticed what Emily noticed and started to laugh too. 

Spencer Reid was sitting at his desk in the bullpen when he was startled by the sound of laughter. He looked around for the source and found it was Hotch and a woman he’d never seen before. Hotch never laughed. He walked with his companion down into the bullpen. “Reid, this is Emily Prentiss. She just transferred.” Hotch said, still smiling.  
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Spencer Reid.” He said to Emily.  
“That’s JJ,” Hotch pointed to a blonde woman. “Jason Gideon,” He pointed to an older man. “Derek Morgan,” Hotch indicated a large, muscular man. “and our technical analyst Penelope Garcia.” He pointed to a smiling, patterned blonde woman.

After meeting the gang, they were immediately called off on a case. No rest for the wicked. It took almost two weeks, but they caught a serial killer and hopped on the jet heading home.

Emily was sat in a chair next to a window on the jet. Her forehead pressed to the glass and her eyes glazing over the blues and whites of the sky, a smile on her lips. It had been two weeks since she had seen the world in colour and she was happier than she’d ever been. There was always a brief moment before she went to sleep, though, when she became terrified. Her hands would shake and she would have to squeeze her eyes shut to try and get past it. She was scared of waking up in the dull world she grew up in. 

She felt a body sit in the chair next to her. Emily turned her head. It was JJ. “Hey.” She said. “I wanted to check in on you. See how you’re adjusting.”  
“It’s great. I love it. I don’t love people dying, but I feel brave. Like we’ve made a difference.”  
“We do.” JJ solemnly contemplated the effect the team had on the world, and then turned to Emily. “You’re beaming. Are you sure it’s not something else? Are you dating?” JJ gasped. “Can you see colours?”  
“Yes.” Emily confided, smiling the whole time.  
“How long has it been?”  
“A couple of weeks.” Emily smiled.  
“Wow, I can’t even imagine how insane that must be.” JJ stared at you in awe for a long while before she spoke again. “Do you want a tea or something?” She asked.  
“Yeah, a tea would be nice.” Emily said, and JJ got up and moved to the back end of the plane where the drinks were kept. Hotch quickly took her seat.  
“Hey.” He said.  
“Hi.” Emily replied, looking at him.  
“Do you want to get dinner with me tomorrow?” He rushed out, sounding unsure.  
“Sure. But what about Haley?” Emily was excited but confused.  
“Oh. Uh…”  
“Hotch?”  
“I told Haley about you and she suggested a trial separation.”  
“Oh no. Hotch, you can’t. Not for me.” Emily would rather stay friends if it meant Hotch keeping his wife.  
“It’s what pushed us off the cliff, but we’ve been teetering on the edge for a few years now. I work too much. I’m not suggesting that we date, but I want to spend time with you.” He stared into her eyes. “I realised something a few days ago.”  
“What was that?”  
“You said that you spent a day living in colour.” Hotch said, and Emily nodded in confirmation. “I think that was my fault.”  
“How so?” She was intrigued.  
“I had a day of colour too when I was working on your mother’s staff. But it was my last day before I joined the Bureau. When I left, so did the colour.”  
“Oh wow. I never expected that.”   
“You should sleep.” Hotch said softly. Emily slipped her hand into Hotch’s, closing her eyes. Her hand didn’t shake and she didn’t need to force her eyes shut as she drifted off.

JJ set Emily’s tea in front of her and smirked at her and Hotch. “A few weeks, huh?” JJ said under her breath smirking, putting the pieces together in her mind.


End file.
